Democrats Surge in Fundraising After Biden’s Unexpected Exit

Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not be running for re-election, the Democratic Party raised $100 million from donors through its primary fundraising platform, ActBlue. This information comes from a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project. Although these figures are unofficial, they provide insight into the party’s fundraising efforts ahead of upcoming disclosures.

On Sunday alone, contributors donated $66.9 million to kick off Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest fundraising day for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. The previous record for donations was on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.

This surge in donations brings ActBlue’s total raised since its inception two decades ago to $14 billion. In contrast, its Republican counterpart, WinRed, which started in late 2019, has collected approximately $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.

ActBlue reported a notable trend on social media, stating that many individuals were making their first-ever donations within the last 24 hours. They expressed excitement about the influx of new small-dollar donors supporting the grassroots movement.

Additionally, the super PAC Future Forward, which supports Biden, received $150 million in new commitments from major contributors within a day of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which established a fund for the eventual Democratic nominee, also reported raising over $160,000 within the same timeframe.

Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed belief that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and announced his support. Furthermore, prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have pledged their backing to Harris.

Previously, Biden experienced significant fundraising success shortly after being defeated by Donald Trump in a televised debate on June 27, raising around $28 million in two days. Following Trump’s conviction on multiple felony charges, Biden raised $19.2 million, while Trump and his affiliated groups raised $69 million in the days surrounding his conviction. In that period, Trump’s campaign website faced technical difficulties due to the influx of donations, and an aligned super PAC managed to garner $70 million that month.

From April to June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, while those supporting Trump accumulated $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.

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